: (Patrick Doyle) It's a forgone
conclusion that when the Devil comes to a small town in the form of
actor Max von Sydow and sets up shop, bad things are going to happen.
The incarnation of evil arrives in a small Maine town (being a Stephen
King story, that location is mandatory) and opens an antiques and
trinket shop called "Needful Things." He sells people items of seemingly
supernatural capability, curing their ills and making them very happy.
In return, however, the townsfolk have to do favors for the shopkeeper,
Gaunt, and these asks generally involve increasingly violent pranks
between the locals. After people start dying because of these
suggestions from Gaunt, the local sheriff begins unfolding the true
nature of the adversary and attempts to stop the total destruction of
the town. Although the premise of
has fantastic
appeal, the execution of the film by a novice director ultimately led to
a movie that had little elegance in how it conveyed the mastery of the
Devil. Instead, it became a tedious series of dishonest, desperate, and
demeaning acts by otherwise decent people, yielding a distinct downer of
a narrative. There's also little intrigue or mystery about what Gaunt
truly is, so you know the likely outcome from the opening scenes. Part
of the film's predictability is owed to Patrick Doyle's imposing horror
score, which hits you in the face with its intentions right up front and
continues pummeling you with Satanic tones right through the end of the
picture. Doyle was not yet truly practiced in the art of film scoring,
but his techniques at handling orchestral force and brutality had
improved via
. There is a truly devious aspect to how
Doyle twists his classical romanticism into darker forms in his early
scores, and this one stands in middle of his output in terms of quality.
There is absolutely nothing new in the techniques he employs for this
movie, but hearing those strategies filtered through his musical voice
is always a nice treat for his listeners. The composer throws everything
he can think of at
Doyle employs a conventional orchestra for
Needful
Things, with electronics added mostly for the climax only as the
Devil is exposed. The composer had a tendency to write for size rather
than melodic emphasis in his heightened cues at the time,
Dead
Again losing the narrative amongst the explosions of bombast, as
good as they may have sounded in some moments. The action portions in
this score are so frenzied with activity that the thematic attributions
sometimes get lost here as well, the tone so overbearingly oppressive
that Doyle's somewhat elusive melodic lines sometimes blend into the
background. On the upside, the depth of his recording is improved in
this work, a nagging problem in especially his children's scores of
prior years that had attempted to achieve excitement. Some listeners may
roll their eyes at the outright Latin chanting that punctuates several
cues, the technique adequately executed but expressed in Doyle's usual
extroverted fashion that leaves little ambiguity. The composer affords
Needful Things with three primary, recurring themes, each
expressed in various guises throughout the work. The main theme of the
score represents the Devil's plot and the suffering experienced by the
townsfolk. The Devil himself has several related ideas, one for the
chaos he causes via the peoples' acts and the other in his delight over
that entropy. Finally, the "Needful Things" shop and its supernatural
items have their own mysterious identity. The main theme for the Devil's
plot utilizes a somewhat awkward progression (not unusual for Doyle at
the time), but it serves its purpose well enough. It occurs amidst the
Devil material at 1:38 and 1:56 into "The Arrival" and erupts with snare
rhythm at 3:16 into "To My Good Friend Brian" against the main Devil
theme. This plotting theme urgently closes "Needful Things" on rolling
woodwinds and strings, worries at 2:06 into "Racing Towards Apple
Throwing Time," explodes from the massive stinger at 1:32 into "Nettie
Finds Her Dog," and opens "Go Upstairs" tentatively. It melts into the
Devil material at 1:37 into "The Devil's Here" for several renditions
and is absolutely massive several times on brass and choir at 3:50.
Finally, this theme is eerie on synthesizers at the start of "Just Blow
Them Away" but turns tonally hopeful for a pensive moment, then taking a
resolute form on brass and snare at 1:22 as town's rebellion
occurs.
The Devil's theme in
Needful Things, as
mentioned before, is split between one melody for the chaos of the
peoples' acts and a separate one for the Devil's delight in watching
them do so, the former more devious while the latter informing the
massive religioso portions of the score. The chaos theme is better
enunciated, featuring sinewy and inherently distrusting descending
figures helmed by the opening three notes that are sometimes chanted.
This material adopts its Latin chanting bravado at 0:31 into "The
Arrival" and opens "To My Good Friend Brian" with organ and lightly
frantic premonitions; the idea has an innocent charm in this cue,
befitting the child being manipulated. It's crystal clear on flute at
2:50, lowering to bass strings, tormenting the rest of this early cue.
The chanted portion for the Devil's delight is restrained to almost
giddy playfulness at start of "Brian's Deed." It toils with elegance on
various woodwinds early in "More Deeds" over choir, rhythmically playful
again later in the cue, with a hint of electronics washing over the
soundscape at the end. The Devil's theme extends out of the mystery
motif in the latter half of "Gaunt's Web" with tingling percussion, the
chanted chaos version closing the cue in something of a stinger. This
theme is very tentative on strings at the start of "Racing Towards Apple
Throwing Time," with redemptive major key goodness attempting
unsuccessfully to prevail here, and the chaos version instead erupts
against the main theme, slowly building upon layers of magnificence. The
idea slowly accelerates in its descending lines at the start of "Nettie
Finds Her Dog," and fragments with predictably tolling chimes and synths
are explored at length in "The Turning Point." Stuttering fragments of
the Devil's theme factor throughout "They Broke the Law" before
consolidating at the end, while some earlier touches of "Dies Irae"
influence expand to inform the start of "The Devil's Here" before the
imposing tones of "The Arrival" are reprised. The theme's descending
lines struggle to their demise at the height of "Just Blow Them Away,"
but Doyle bursts into original "The Arrival" form again at 0:49 into
"End Titles," the Devil's longer theme of devious joy intertwining into
the rest of the cue without any interference from the other themes. Some
listeners may find this theme's actual melodic core to be too unfocused
to really latch onto, but the composer finds an effective balance for
this material via his morbidly gothic instrumental expressions during
its many renditions.
The most attractive theme in
Needful Things is,
not surprisingly, its quietest one, the cyclical motif of mystery and
seduction that inhabits the "Needful Things" store and all the
supernatural trinkets and prizes that affect people's lives from it. The
idea is something of a humorously evil representation of all thrifty
antique stores, and while Doyle prevails with this theme early in the
work, he largely abandons it in the final cues as there is really no
mystery left to the story. The five-note rhythmic phrases that
foreshadow trouble and the allure of Gaunt open "The Arrival" on
tickling strings over ominous low voices, harp plucking at the motif at
2:23 to the cue's end. Woodwinds twist the five-note phrases into
positive incarnations in "Needful Things," returning to their original
form on piano at 0:55. This motif is plucked at the start of "Gaunt's
Web," elongating to an alluring dramatic posture for the theme's longest
development in the score. It emerges from the suspense with
sophistication at 9:47 into "The Turning Point" and impressively
escalates into its own dramatic action motif in the final minute of the
cue; the militaristic variant of this progression for the full ensemble
at the end is a highlight of the whole score. Thereafter, the mystery
motif taunts the middle of "They Broke the Law" in pieces and offers a
quick interlude to the action at 3:19 into "The Devil's Here." The theme
doesn't factor thereafter, sadly, even in the end credits. That credits
sequence bypasses obvious renditions of the main and mystery themes and
instead reprises the uniquely uppity choral "Dies Irae" tones of "Art &
the Minister" from earlier in the score. The end credits aren't only
place where the thematic development could have used a little more
extroversion; the lengthy suspense of "The Turning Point" is not as
rooted in the themes as it could have been, especially with the need to
pivot the mystery and main themes to new modes in more obvious ways.
Doyle's issues with narrative development will reduce
Needful
Things to a merely average listening experience in the genre for
some listeners, especially with the chanted Latin parts sounding a bit
overplayed from the very start. The composer better modulates his ideas
in this work, but he hadn't yet truly refined that capability to best
foreshadow and resolve themes before and after their main expressions
are exhausted. That said,
Needful Things is undeniably fun during
moments when Doyle really gets rolling with the full ensemble, and "The
Arrival" is an excellent summary of the whole score. Its sole album from
1993 includes a pair of classical source recordings that match the score
well, and Doyle enthusiasts will always hold an affinity for this score
in their collections.
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- Music as Written for the Film: ***
- Music as Heard on Album: ****
- Overall: ***
| Bias Check: |
For Patrick Doyle reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.53
(in 51 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.31
(in 28,630 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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